


The Lake

by meriel_r



Category: Dark (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Beginnings, Deaf Character, F/M, Family Issues, First Meetings, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Parallels, Post-Divorce, Season 3 Finale, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:47:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25036495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meriel_r/pseuds/meriel_r
Summary: Set in Martha's Alternative World. Magnus and Franziska's first meeting. Rated T for light swearing.
Relationships: Franziska Doppler/Magnus Nielsen
Comments: 1
Kudos: 36
Collections: Alt Magnus x Alt Franziska





	The Lake

The lake

Winden, late June 2017, first day of the summer holidays

Franziska sat at the kitchen table, eating her cereals while looking at her parents every now and then. She wanted to ask them. No, she was going to ask them. She scolded herself in her mind for hesitating and procrastinating. There was nothing to fear anyways, for she was 14 now and was old enough to do things on her own.  
She casted another look to her father, who was drinking tea, his gaze absent; then, she looked at her mother, buttering her toast while reading her notes on the case she was working on. Charlotte looked up to her daughter, sighed and put the toast back on the plate next to the papers in front of her.  
"Is there something you want to tell us?" she signed and spoke at the same time, gaining Peter's attention.  
"I wanted to ask you something"  
When Franziska started to hesitate, Peter gestured her to go ahead.  
"Can I go to the lake on my own, today?"  
"To the lake? Alone?" Charlotte questioned, "No, you can't"  
"But why? Is it the same reason why I can't go to school and have to study at home?" Franziska paused, slamming her hands on the kitchen table and getting up from her chair, "Is it the same reason why I always have to stay at home? The same reason why I'm not allowed to do anything? Is it because I'm deaf and dumb? Or because you're ashamed of having such a daughter?"  
Franziska's face was flushed from anger, her breathing erratic and her ginger eyebrows knitted together.  
"I'm not ashamed of you" answered Charlotte after a moment, "I just want to make sure you're safe and having you going around alone is not a good idea"  
"Maybe we should let her" said Peter, without signing, "the lake is close by and she's old enough to go on her own"  
"But she's vulnerable"  
"Charlotte, we won't be here forever. She has to learn to take care of herself"  
Charlotte looked over where her daughter was still standing. Franziska was looking at them in confusion. She remembered when they realised that she wouldn't have been able to hear. She used to cry, then. Not anymore. Yes, Peter was right, she is older now and she should be fine on her own.  
"Okay" she signed, "you can go, but you have to check your phone often and text me. And I expect you home before dawn, am I clear?"  
Franziska nodded vigorously with a large smile on her face and, after hugging both her parents, she jolted to her room to get dressed.  
Elisabeth, who was just entering the kitchen, yawned and sat on an empty chair.  
"What was all that noise?" she asked.

The door suddenly opened and the light was turned on. Magnus kept his eyes shut and turned on his other side. Maybe, if he faked to be sleeping, whoever came to his room would get the hint and leave him alone.  
"Magnus" his sister, Martha, grabbed a discarded pillow and hit him with it, "get up, dad is here"  
He turned his head towards her with a confused look.  
"What's he doing here?"  
"I don't know, come downstairs"  
Martha left his room and Magnus sighed. What was with this surprise visit from their dad? It had been a year since his parents had divorced and Ulrich Nielsen was not one to visit his three children unannounced. Magnus got out of bed and put on a shirt he found on the floor, then went downstairs, in the kitchen, where Martha and Mikkel were sitting around the kitchen table and Ulrich was standing next to the door frame. He passed next to his father, knocking harshly with his shoulder against his, and went to sit right in front of Ulrich, at the head of the table, where he once used to sit.  
"What do you want?"  
"I was passing by and thought about seeing you"  
Magnus scoffed loudly.  
"Quit the bullshit, dad"  
"Magnus, language" his mother scolded him, coming in from the backyard, "Ulrich"  
"Katharina"  
"You didn't call to tell me you were coming to see the kids"  
"I forgot, sorry" said Ulrich, looking everywhere but Katharina.  
She pushed her glasses up her nose with a sigh and left the room.  
"I came to tell you that me and Hannah are going to get married" Ulrich muttered, once Katharina left.  
Magnus, Martha and Mikkel exchanged a disappointed look between themselves, but said nothing.  
"The ceremony will be in September and we hoped the three of you would come" Ulrich continued.  
Magnus rose from his chair and went towards the door to leave the room, but just as he was about to, he turned his face to look at his father in the eyes and spat: "I don't want to come and celebrate your stupid marriage with the whore you cheated on mom with"  
He got out of his house and, taking his bike, he rode towards the forest. He was mad. How could his dad have the courage to ask them such a thing? Didn't he realise how much they all hated him after what he did to mom? Magnus thought that he would have preferred that his father had died, instead of having him break mom's heart like he did.  
He stopped the bike, left it against the bump and walked in direction of the lake.

Franziska, after arriving to the lake, stripped out of her floral printed sundress and plunged into the water. She swam for a little, enjoying the cold water against her warm skin, then, feeling her limbs getting tired, she started doing the dead man's float, to relax a little. She was almost dozing off, with the lulling movement of the lake, when the water started to splash frenetically. She moved so that she was on her feet and was greeted by the sight of a stunned boy, with longish black hair, blue eyes blown wide and mouth agape. They stood there, bewildered, looking at each other for a moment, then the boy opened his mouth and said something Franziska couldn't hear. Her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. She gestured him that she couldn't hear him and saw realisation making way in his eyes, alongside something devastatingly similar to pity.  
Franziska surpassed him and got out of the lake, going to her bag to get a towel. When she turned back towards him, he was already out of the water. She dried herself as good as she could and put back on her dress, offering him her towel, which he gladly took. Taking her phone and opening the notes, she started digiting.  
"What did you say before?" Franziska wrote and passed her phone to him, sitting down on a log.  
The boy sat down next to her and wrote his answer on her phone.  
"I said that I thought you were dead, but you clearly are not"  
She smiled and wrote her reply.  
"No, I clearly am not. I'm Franziska"  
"My name is Magnus…are you new here?"  
At this she frowned slightly and shortly shook her head no, looking in front of her. He wrote some more.  
"Did I upset you?"  
Franziska looked back at him and shook her head again, smiling warmly.  
"Then what is wrong?"  
"My parents usually don't want me going around, especially on my own…they treat me as if I was made of glass" she rolled her eyes.  
"It must be tough"  
Franziska nodded.  
"What about you?"  
"What about me what?"  
"What makes you come to the lake alone? Is something bothering you?"  
"It's complicated…"  
Magnus looked forward and sighed. Without thinking, Franziska let her hand squeeze his in sympathy. His head turned and his pale blue eyes looked into hers. She blushed, but didn't let go of his hand, and smiled encouragingly.  
"It's about my parents" he wrote.  
"You don't need to tell me about it if you don't want to"  
"Ok…maybe I'll tell you, but not now"  
She nodded.  
They kept conversating until it was almost dawn and, when they were about to part, Magnus wrote her his number on her phone and made her promise to meet him at the lake the day after.  
Franziska went back home, thinking about the fact that she had just met her first friend, the first person she had ever met outside her family and felt so happy that she didn't really care when her mother scolded her for forgetting to text her.


End file.
